THE Bachelorette’s Sam Johnston insists he’s no bad guy.
The Sydney electrician and model has been dubbed the Keira Maguire of his series after she was labelled the villain of Richie Strahan’s recent season of The Bachelor because of her outspoken views.
“I am not the bad guy, I guess I have just been the most opinionated person in the first episodes,” he said. “I’m definitely not the Keira of this season. I find it all kind of funny. I don’t think I’m mean or rude.”
Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE
Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.
READ NOWJohnston, 27, is one of the early standouts of The Bachelorette a week into the series that stars former TV news reader Georgia Love in her search to find a partner.
Johnston’s screen time has largely been focused on his tensions with fellow contestant, model Rhys Chiltern. He’s been labelled cocky and arrogant because of his confidence.
As for Love, he describes her as “great” and “a beautiful girl”.
“She’s very driven and professional,” he said. “She is definitely the sort of girl I would go out with, 100 per cent.”
Johnston, who is managed by Chadwicks modelling agency, decided to take part in The Bachelorette after initially auditioning to be The Bachelor.
“They asked me to try for The Bachelor first and I went through the start of the audition process,” he explained. “I wasn’t ready at the time and I thought this would be a great opportunity and more fun.”
He added: “I am not opposed to falling in love by any means but worst case scenario is I make 16 good mates and one great chick mate or 16 good mates and fall in love with Georgia so I didn’t really see any negatives to this whole thing.”